World Trade Center Montevideo Partially Evacuated Due to ‘Sardine Can’ Bomb Threat
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, June 18 (UPI) — Uruguay’s World Trade Center Montevideo was partially evacuated on Wednesday due to a bomb threat that turned out to be a crude, inoperative device inside a can of sardines.
The Ministry of Interior said it is not the first time a potentially dangerous object was left near the building, but this time the device was left close to security cameras, which authorities hope will give “a clearer vision of the time when the device was left and thus identify those who are responsible for the act.”
The device was dropped near the Israeli embassy, which is within the trade center complex, and led to the evacuation of Tower 4, near where bomb squads carried out emergency efforts.
Reports indicate that within the can of sardines were two shotgun shells, a battery, a cable and a small initiator. There were various missing elements to make it a working explosive device, according to authorities.
The most recent threat to the World Trade Center Montevideo complex occurred Jan. 8, when authorities discovered a suspicious package during a routine inspection.
“It is already the third case recorded in the area and although none have caused any harm, one has to think that this kind of thing also creates alarm and concern in the area and the neighborhood around . What it demonstrated is that preventive measures work because if it were a real device, the attack itself would have been disabled,” Williams García, director of Uruguay’s Directorate of Information and Intelligence, said.
Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, has a population of more than 1.3 million people.
